Volume I Part 17 (2/2)
Greek intellect was pa.s.sing into decrepitude, and the moral condition of the European world was in antagonism to scientific progress.
CHAPTER VII.
THE GREEK AGE OF INTELLECTUAL DECREPITUDE.
THE DEATH OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY.
_Decline of Greek Philosophy: it becomes Retrospective, and in Philo the Jew and Apollonius of Tyana leans on Inspiration, Mysticism, Miracles._
NEO-PLATONISM _founded by Ammonius Saccas, followed by Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblicus, Proclus.--The Alexandrian Trinity.--Ecstasy.--Alliance with Magic, Necromancy._
_The Emperor Justinian closes the philosophical Schools._
_Summary of Greek Philosophy.--Its four Problems: 1. Origin of the World; 2. Nature of the Soul; 3. Existence of G.o.d; 4.
Criterion of Truth.--Solution of these Problems in the Age of Inquiry--in that of Faith--in that of Reason--in that of Decrepitude._
_Determination of the Law of Variation of Greek Opinion.--The Development of National Intellect is the same as that of Individual._
_Determination of the final Conclusions of Greek Philosophy as to G.o.d, the World, the Soul, the Criterion of Truth.--Ill.u.s.trations and Criticisms on each of these Points._
[Sidenote: Decline of Greek philosophy.]
In this chapter it is a melancholy picture that I have to present--the old age and death of Greek philosophy. The strong man of Aristotelism and Stoicism is sinking into the superannuated dotard; he is settling
”Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange, eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion-- Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
He is full of admiration for the past and of contemptuous disgust at the present; his thoughts are wandering to the things that occupied him in his youth, and even in his infancy. Like those who are ready to die, he delivers himself up to religious preparation, without any farther concern whether the things on which he is depending are intrinsically true or false.
In this, the closing scene, no more do we find the vivid faith of Plato, the mature intellect of Aristotle, the manly self-control of Zeno. Greek philosophy is ending in garrulity and mysticism. It is leaning for help on the conjurer, juggler, and high-priest of Nature.
There are also new-comers obtruding themselves on the stage. The Roman soldier is about to take the place of the Greek thinker, and a.s.sert his claim to the effects of the intestate--to keep what suits him, and to destroy what he pleases. The Romans, advancing towards their age of Faith, are about to force their ideas on the European world.
Under the shadow of the Pyramids Greek philosophy was born; after many wanderings for a thousand years round the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean, it came back to its native place, and under the shadow of the Pyramids it died.
[Sidenote: It becomes retrospective.]
[Sidenote: Has arrived at Oriental ideas.]
From the period of the New Academy the decline of Greek philosophy was uninterrupted. Inventive genius no longer existed; its place was occupied by the commentator. Instead of troubling themselves with inquiries after absolute truth, philosophers sought support in the opinions of the ancient times, and the real or imputed views of Pythagoras, Plato, or Aristotle were received as a criterion. In this, the old age of philosophy, men began to act as though there had never been such things as original investigation and discovery among the human race, and that whatever truth there was in the world was not the product of thought, but the remains of an ancient and now all but forgotten revelation from heaven--forgotten through the guilt and fall of man.
There is something very melancholy in this total cessation of inquiry.
The mental impetus, which one would have expected to continue for a season by reason of the momentum that had been gathered in so many ages, seems to have been all at once abruptly lost. So complete a pause is surprising: the arrow still flies on after it has parted from the bow; the potter's wheel runs round though all the vessels are finished.
In producing this sudden stoppage, the policy of the early Caesars greatly a.s.sisted. The principle of liberty of thought, which the very existence of the divers philosophical schools necessarily implied, was too liable to make itself manifest in aspirations for political liberty.
While through the emperors the schools of Greece, of Alexandria, and Rome were depressed from that supremacy to which they might have aspired, and those of the provinces, as Ma.r.s.eilles and Rhodes, were relatively exalted, the former, in a silent and private way, were commencing those rivalries, the forerunners of the great theological struggles between them in after ages for political power. Christianity in its dawn was attended by a general belief that in the East there had been preserved a purer recollection of the ancient revelation, and that hence from that quarter the light would presently s.h.i.+ne forth. Under the favouring influence of such an expectation, Orientalism, to which, as we have seen, Grecian thought had spontaneously arrived, was greatly re-enforced.
[Sidenote: Philo the Jew thinks he is inspired.]
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